Needle Hill Tungsten Mine – Timeline 1917 to 1967

HF: This timeline of the history of Needle Hill mine comes from the excellent book, Hong Kong Mining History, linked below. The authors have kindly given permission for this extract to be included on this website.

Needle Hill Tungsten Mine is located in Shing Mun and was the biggest tungsten mine in Hong Kong. It had more than 2,000 workers in the 1950s, but the site has since been abandoned. The Shing Mun Tunnel on Route Number 5 was built under the underground mine site in 1990.

1941 More than 500 Chinese miners were working in the area. The mine was closed in December due to the Japanese occupation

1942 The mine was reopened by the Taiwan Development Company (operated by Japanese) in July

1945 After World War 2, the mine site was once again abandoned. All mining machinery and facilities were looted

1946 Small-scale excavations were carried out by former miners

1951 The mine was sub-leased to the Hoong Foo Mining Company and re-opened

1952 During the peak period, the area of the mine was 364 hectares, with around 2,000 miners

1955 The mine closed once again

1956 Yan Hing Company Ltd of Hong Kong undertook the mining lease. The mine was reopened. In the next ten years, Hong Kong produced more than hundred tons of wolframite concentrates, almost all of which came from this mine

1961 Small scale operations with around 50 miners

1967 The mining operation was closed due to a drop in the tungsten price and an increase in wages